And More Christmas Cards

Getting into the season a little! Still have about 20 cards left to make, so I hope my motivation keeps up - and that I can find the time to finish. Here are a few of my most recent batch:

A few more Christmas Cards :)

  

Okay, so this one isn't Christmas themed, but another recent kreation...

Happy November!

We are having a fun day today! DS2's 5th birthday, a Saturday, and Fall Festival at our church.  The two big girls worked all day at the church, the rest of us did a little shopping and came home.  The two little kids had fun playing with Legos and playing outside.  Then hot dogs & beans dinner for the birthday boy! 
I had a little time to squeeze in some Christmas card crafting. Here are some of my projects: 

The next two cards were made using embellishments I received from some scrapbook swapping friends.  I didn't make the folded tree or the spirelli wreath, just put together a card with them :)  For the tree card I had some wide ribbon just the right colors that I used as a background. I think it turned out pretty neat.

Finally Some Crafting!

Card Making Fun

I am so far behind on scrapbooking, over two years worth of pictures waiting to be put into albums.  So I'm feeling guilty that the only crafts I feel like doing lately are cards.  But crafting is supposed to be fun, right? And this lately is fun.  The best part is that it requires less planning to put together a card.  I can start with any color scheme or product and go.  With layouts I have to try to tie it all into the pictures.  With cards I decide the title/event after I have the papers and embellishments chosen. Anyway, I think these turned out pretty cute.  Made one similar to the top one for my DD#1's 14th birthday (I love you!).  I thought it turned out cute so I made another.  The second one I just saw the paper and started improvising.  I really love my little butterfly die cut. I think I paid less than $5 for it and I've used it for quite a few cards already.  Plus I got to use lots of Stickles on this card! My fav, next to anything BasicGrey that is!

Another Haiti Layout

Loved this picture of DS2 taken while we were in Haiti.  It looks to me like he's magically changed into a little adult behind the lawnmower, looking back to see the clouds coming in and worrying about finishing the yard in time.  I used little cat's eye inks and a sponge to try to create a landscape and the weather I invisioned...Hope you like it!

Birthday Card

Here's another card I made with the DCWV Sweet Matstack.  This pad has 72 pages - I will be able to make LOTS of cards with it!  I also picked up these cute little cupcake brads by K&Co at Wal-mart, I knew they'd go great with these papers.  The ribbons are by ki Memories, from a huge bag of ribbons I purchased in a group buy.

More Christmas Cards

Don't remember making these, but found the picture files and couldn't find where I ever uploaded them, so here they are.  Haven't had much time for creating lately, so I'm having to rely on old creations to have blog posts :)

I did create 4 new layouts for the boys' Haiti book about 1 1/2 weeks ago.  We had craft day at our church. It was a great time and I got some work done! FUN! But, I haven't had a chance to get pictures taken and loaded.  Things have been very chaotic around here...Searching for qualified health care for DS1 and then Daddy had a work-related crisis to top it all off...Calgon take me away!  Anyway, hoping to get those up later this week. It's on my list...but has been for 10 days now!

Love the Beach!

I made this layout quite awhile now, but just realized I hadn't uploaded it anywhere.  These pictures were taken on the boys' first trip to the beach.  It is just outside of Cap-Haitien.  We had a GREAT day. It was almost as if we had a private beach. 

The background paper is from Coredinations from my favorite package - Chocolate Delights.  I received the super cute paper piecing of the palm, umbrella & flip flops from a scrapping friend in a swap. 

The Best Mutt Ever

We lost our Chief today.  It's been a long time coming, but that doesn't reduce the pain.  This week he suffered many seizures, had difficulty controlling his back legs, and then contracted some sort of sinus infection that made it nearly impossible for him to breath. He was suffering.  It was time, there was no question.
We adopted Chief in August 1995 from the local animal shelter when he was only about 4 months old.  About a week later he was admitted into our local vet for parvo treatments.  He LOVED the vet ever after. Once he recovered, he became the consumate puppy and chewed everything from our feet to the table legs.  He was quite a pain in the butt for the first 2 years - and then something miraculous occurred.
Maturity agreed with him.  He was loyal and brave. He'd protect our family without hesitation.  I remember when we brought DD1 home.  He was very confused about what a baby was, but when we had visitors he didn't want to let them near the bassinet, his protective instincts kicked into high gear.  He barked to warn anyone who pulled into our driveway or walked by our yard.  But he had this great synchronicity with us despite our lack of training. After he let us know there was a visitor he'd watch our cues, once he was confident we were safe he'd stop the "attack" and start the "greeting".
And he wasn't all guard dog.  He had a sensitive side.  Any time he'd see someone crying, expecially DH or I, he'd come cuddle up to us and lick away our tears.
Chief - my children don't know life without you.  We are going to be facing a tough adjustment around here without you.  But all the grief is worth the pain, you were the best mutt EVER! We are so thankful to exerience having you in our family. You will be in our hearts forever.  Have fun frolicking with Cosmo, Houdini, Kane and Cleo across the Rainbow Bridge...

And Two More Cards

A couple more cards I made this week. One for DH's birthday, the other for Father's Day! Hope he likes them!  This one was made with Basic Grey Granola papers and Ranger Hot Cocoa ink:

And this one was make with DCWV's Sweet Stack (blue paper from Stampin' Up) and my favorite Ranager Hot Cocoa Ink.  I love the pre-glittered papers!

More Basic Grey Christmas Cards

These were made with the Figgy Pudding Card kit. Just ordered a couple more BG card kits, I've been having so much fun putting these together!

Introducing....

Introducing....Filipe...or Dooney...or Drama King...or, well we just haven't decided yet. This is the dog we got at PetSmart today. They let us bring him home on a test basis to make sure he will fit in with our family before we finalize the adoption. If we can conquer house training it's looking really good!  He is very timid around Chief, so Chief is pretty much ignoring him. He has spent the day in my lap and took a nap with me this afternoon.  Hopefully this gentle, cuddly personality isn't just first day fear! After MONTHs of looking for my little lap dog I might have found him!

Basic Grey Blush Card Kit

I had a lot of fun yesterday putting together these cards from a Basic Grey card kit.  One of the cards is for my Dear Husband - our 16th anniversary is today!! The rest of the cards will be used for other church couples' anniversaries. Thanks for looking!

Birthday Cards

I needed a couple of cards TODAY for male family members and all my pre-made birthday cards were glittery & pink.  Fortunately the three little kids cooperated while I got these two made, written in, and into the mail.  Hope the recipients like them!  Once again, I used Basic Grey papers, this time from a set called Granola.  I love working with browns and blues, so I really like this line. I also used a new Tim Holtz distress ink (brushed corduroy) that I recently purchased, plus my Spellbinders Labels Eight dies.  Love to use the Spellbinders dies for card titles! Much fancier than the simple squares and rectangles I used to use!